Government should follow Minister Canavan and end Green Lawfare

“Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Senator the Hon Matt Canavan is right to take on green groups that abuse the legal system to shut down development,” said Daniel Wild, Research Fellow with the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

Yesterday Senator Canavan delivered a speech to the Queensland Media Club where he outlined how green groups are exploiting the legal system.

“The government should abolish Section 487 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This Section gives legal privileges to green groups not directly affected by development proposals,” said Mr. Wild.

“Green groups have been abusing legal systems at both state and federal levels to pursue an ideological anti-coal and anti-mining agenda,”

“In its ruling on the Alpha coal mine last week, the Queensland Supreme Court made it clear that the aim of green groups in preventing Australian mining through legal action does nothing to help the environment. Stopping coal mining in Australia just means more coal being mined overseas, which is typically dirtier and actually more harmful to the environment,” said Mr Wild.